


don't turn your back, don't look away

by ace8013, StartTheFire



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Doctor Who Fusion, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Jack is dead, M/M, SAMMY AND LILY YELLING MY FVAORITE FIC TROPE, Time Travel, ben emily companions, or is he ????? oooo, sammy lily jack timelords, sammylily bickering siblingisms i love them sm, the tardis is a lesbian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:47:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28232649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ace8013/pseuds/ace8013, https://archiveofourown.org/users/StartTheFire/pseuds/StartTheFire
Summary: “Why aren’t you freaking out right now?”Ben shrugged. “I mean, not like I haven’t been zoinked through time before.”Her eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”He offered his hand. “Ben Arnold. Who are you?”She frowned at his hand. “Lily.”or doctor who kfam au
Relationships: Ben Arnold & Sammy Stevens, Ben Arnold/Emily Potter, Sammy Stevens & Jack Wright & Lily Wright, Sammy Stevens & Lily Wright, Sammy Stevens/Jack Wright
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	don't turn your back, don't look away

**Author's Note:**

> hello everyone. apologies in advamce for angst also bad sex jokes. there are no hugs except benmily bc everyone else isEMOTIONALLY CONSTIPATED. 
> 
> ev- "IM JUST EXCITED FOR NICHE AU FIC TO BE REAL"

Ben Arnold suddenly felt a jolt, everything going pitch black for a moment. He tripped forward, but caught himself as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Darkness. Why was it dark? It was only two thirty in the afternoon last time he’d checked.

Ben turned to glance behind him. “Emily?” He frowned, then repeated again, with more urgency this time, “Emily?! Where are you? This isn’t funny, Em!” Ben ran back out to the courtyard from which he’d just left, and suddenly stopped. 

Not only was it night out, the view around him was completely different then before. The buildings were smaller than before and the street lamps seemed larger. The usually loud and bustling city of Manhattan was more quiet and he couldn't see a soul in sight.

“What the hell,” He muttered, turning around again. He’d just been going to get coffee for Emily and Sammy. The Time Lord was dropping them off in New York for a lunch date, he said that he needed to handle _other_ things. Ben let out an irritated sigh, no matter how long they’d been travelling with Sammy, he never seemed to fully trust them. Ben shook his head, pushing the thought aside, there were more pressing matters to deal with right now. 

Suddenly from behind him, he hears a woman call out. “Did you see them?” The woman asked him, out of breath from running.

Ben jumped, turning around and taking a step back. A young woman in a trenchcoat stood before him, panting, but her face deadly serious. Ben blinked before responding with, “See who?” 

“The angels. Did you see the angels?” She stepped forward, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him slightly, her wide eyes and curly hair making her look a little crazy.

“Listen, ma’am, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was just with my girlfriend, Emily, and it was light out and I was in New York City and now I’m _not,_ what’s going on here?”

“You were with someone?”

“Yes, I was just-”

“And she’s not here?”

“No, I- what’s happening? Have I been teleported, or something?”

“You were in Central Park? And by the looks of it,” She scanned his body, “Mid 2010s?”

Ben nodded. “Sure. And where am I now?”

“Central Park, 1928.” She responded simply, turning and walking to the mouth of the underground passage that Ben had just emerged from.

“ _Great_ ,” Ben deadpanned, letting out a sigh. “Hey, wait up!” He jogged to catch up with her. “Who are you? How’d you know I’m from 2018?”

“Maybe I’m a time traveler.”

“Okay. Who are the angels?”

She stopped. “Why aren’t you freaking out right now?”

Ben shrugged. “I mean, not like I haven’t been zoinked through time before.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

He offered his hand. “Ben Arnold. Who are you?”

She frowned at his hand. “Lily.”

Ben awkwardly glanced down at his hand, before giving a small nod and sliding it back into his pocket. He looked up at her. “How did you know I was from the future and who are the angels?”

“I’m a time traveler and it’s better if you don’t know, shortstack.”

Ben let out a growl. “We’re the same height.”

Lily made a noncommittal noise. “If you didn’t see the angels, you can’t help me,” she paused for a moment and looked out in the distance, “But I can give you a ride back to wherever you came from.”

“Oh that’s ok, I can just call my friend!” Ben pulled out his phone out of his pocket.

Lily frowned. “That won’t work here, buddy. No cell towers.”

“No, it’s ok, I have international 5G roaming data,” he responded, pulling up messages and quickly typing something in and clicked send, the text going through.

“What the fuck,” Lily muttered.

The phone buzzed as a response came. “Ok! He says he’ll be here soon!” Ben chirped, shutting off his phone and sliding it back into his pocket before staring back at Lily. “So, who are the angels?”

“They’re the reason you’re here.”

“Y’know, these vague answers aren’t getting us anywhere.” 

Lily ignored his response, pulling a ballpoint pen out of her pocket and clicking the cap on the end. The pen suddenly seemed to open up, more parts coming out of it as it began to hum and buzz. Lily held it up to the mouth of the tunnel, the humming growing louder and she pointed it into the darkness.

“I definitely can’t help you if- is that a sonic screwdriver?” Ben pointed at the object in her hand.

“What?” Lily’s attention snapped back to Ben, “What did you just call it?”

Ben opened his mouth to repeat his question but his attention was drawn away when he heard a slow whirring noise behind him, the now familiar sound of the TARDIS. He completely forgot what he was saying, instead a wide grin breaking out across his face.

“That’s my ride!” he smiled, walking over to where the TARDIS was materializing.

“You’re fucking kidding me.” Lily muttered. Ben turned back to look at her, and she was staring, eyes incredibly wide, jaw dropped.

“I know! It’s cool right? It’s a time machine!” Ben grinned, used to people’s shock upon seeing his friends ship for the first time.

The TARDIS lands, and Emily comes flying out the door, her face painted with a wide smile of relief, and immediately flinging her arms around Ben and kissing him. “Oh my god, Benny!” She pulled back, holding his face in her hands. “Are you okay?”

Ben let out a laugh, hugging her back. “Yeah, yeah, I'm fine I don’t really know what happened. This is uh- my friend!” He said, gesturing towards Lily who was glaring at the TARDIS.

Following Emily, Sammy stepped out of the TARDIS, with a worried look. “Ben! You okay? Sorry it took me so long, you know how hard it is to land in New York. Who’s your friend?”

“I can’t fucking believe this,” Lily sputtered out, total shock still on her face as she stormed up to Sammy, “I’m gonna kill you.” 

“I’m sorry, have we met? I don’t think-”

He’s cut off as suddenly Lily slapped him- hard. Sammy stumbled back, putting his hand to his cheek as he let out a confused stammering noise.

“I thought you were dead, _asshole,”_ she barked up at him.

Sammy blinked, a few moments of confused silence passing over the group before he spoke again, more slowly and with a shocked tone, “Lily?”

“You guys know each other?” Ben piped up, confused.

Lily let out a dark chortle. “ _Oh_ , do we know each other.”

Ben and Emily both looked over at Sammy expectantly. Ben’s brain scrambled for answers for the millions of questions that were piling up. Sammy had never mentioned anyone else to the pair, but from the looks of it, Sammy and Lily seemed to have some kind of history. Why had Sammy hidden it from them?

Sammy still looked dumbfounded, his mouth struggling to form words. “I thought _you_ were dead, Lily,” he finally sputtered out.

“It’ll take a lot more than blowing up a goddamn planet to kill me,” Lily scoffed.

“Hooold on, hoooooold on,” Ben interrupted, then letting out a nervous laugh, “Blowing up a _planet_?” 

Sammy turned his attention to Ben, opening and closing his mouth a few times before finally saying, “I’ll explain later, I- I don’t expect you to understand but-”

“No way, man,” Ben blurts, “We’re not gonna understand if you don’t _tell us_.”

“Hate to break up the _sharing circle,_ but there’s still angels roaming around. If you want to talk we’d better get out of here.” Lily interjected.

Sammy nodded and waved Ben and Emily back towards the TARDIS doors.. “Do you have a TARDIS?” He asked. Lily shook her head and pushed past him. Sammy rolled his eyes as he followed her in, closing the doors before heading up to the console and pressing a few buttons along the edge.

“You redecorated.” Lily comments, looking around the inside . 

Sammy smiled at her. “Yeah! Nice, right?”

Lily frowned, shoving her hands into the pockets of her trench coat. “I don’t like it.”

Sammy gave her a dirty look before twisting a final lever and stepping away. The TARDIS lit up and whirred as it began to dematerialize. “We should be safe now.”

“Can we get some answers around these parts?” Ben said, sounding at the end of his rope, “ _Please?_ ”

“Benny,” Emily whispered to her boyfriend, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder, then louder she continued, “How do you two know each other? Maybe we can start there.”

Lily looked at Sammy pointedly. “I have some questions, myself actually.”

“We grew up together. On Gallifrey.” Sammy said, eyes fixed on the monitor.

“I thought you were the _last_ Time Lord,” Ben responded, voice tight.

“I thought I was too.”

Lily stepped closer to Sammy, hesitating for a moment. “So he isn’t with you then?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer.

A silence fell over the group.

Sammy, who still hadn’t looked away from the monitor, swallowed loudly. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

Lily nodded, gaze on the floor. “You were supposed to keep him safe.” She muttered.

“I tried, Lily-

“Then why are you alive?” She snapped, tears in her eyes as she met Sammy’s gaze, “And why isn’t he?” 

“I-”

“Well some ‘ _Protector_ ’ you are!” She shouted, then gritted her teeth and stormed out of the main room and down the infinite halls of the TARDIS.

Sammy watched her leave and let out a deep sigh, going back to staring at the monitor.

A few moments of silence passed over the remaining three before it was interrupted. “Ummm, what the _fuck_ was that?” Ben’s mouth was basically on the floor at this point, “And I want- no I think we _deserve_ answers. We’re your friends, Sammy. Aren’t we?”

Suddenly and with no warming, Sammy lunged a fist forwards into the screen. The monitor was pushed backwards and into the column, a spiderweb of cracks growing where his fist had landed. The image on the screen flickered for a moment, before going dark. Sammy bent over the console, putting his head in his hands.

Ben and Emily stepped back in surprise. “Hey, wow, that’s, uh, not good,” he commented, shocked.

Sammy stood up, turning away from the pair. “I’m- I’m sorry and I’m just going to go.”

Ben shook his head, reaching out a hand. “No, Sammy- Please, don’t go.”

“You guys- I don’t want to talk about- I can explain it later-”

“Sammy, c’mon-!”

“I’m sorry, but it’s better if I’m alone- I just-”

“Dude, you're our friend and we can see you hurting. I love you, no matter what. Enough is enough, okay?”

Emily put her hand on Sammy’s shoulder gently. “Sammy, it’s okay,” She whispered, “Let’s talk about this.”

Sammy let out a defeated, but not angry, sigh and turned around to face his friends. “I’m sorry about this, you guys.” He gestured vaguely towards the shattered monitor. 

“It’s- It’s fine,” Ben responded, giving it a glance, “We can figure out how to fix it later. This is your ship after all.”  
  
“Yeah, Sammy it’s okay-” Emily starts, but Sammy cuts her off.

“It’s not okay, guys, it’s not. There- there are things I didn’t want you to know, things you- I never- I don’t- I’m sorry. This is- This is literal _lightyears_ out of your pay grades. You’re just humans, you shouldn’t have to…”

“Sammy.” Emily grabs his arm again. “Yeah, we’re just humans, sure, but we’re your _best friends_.”

Ben nods. “It’s okay,” he says, “We can take it. We want to help, dude!”

Sammy sighed and moved to sit down on the steps to one of the hallways. “Me and Lily met when we were kids,” He says after a moment of silence. “Once we were old enough, we stole a TARDIS, and ran away to have adventures.”

“Were you guys-” Ben made a vague gesture with his hands, eyebrows raised.

Sammy frowned, then his face twisted in disgust as the realization of Ben’s implications hit him. “Oh, god no! No. Not like that. Just friends.”

Ben nodded. “Okay, then what?”

Sammy’s expression soured and he glanced back at the cracked monitor. “The Time Lords got into a- The biggest war the universe had ever seen. We all had to take part.”

Ben nodded again, but didn’t say anything this time. After a few moments, he finally asked the question that had been bothering him the most. “And who were you guys talking about?”

Sammy shook his head. “Another friend of ours- He died in the war.” 

“I’m so sorry, man,” Ben looked down at his shoes.

Emily sat down next to him, wrapping one arm around him and laying her head on his shoulder. Ben followed behind her, squeezing in between Sammy and the railing and pushing everyone to the side. They all uncomfortably squirmed for a moment so that Ben wasn’t completely crushed.

Ben chuckled. “These stairs really weren’t made for three grown adults to sit on, huh?”

Emily and Sammy made noncommittal noises. “More like two and a half,” Sammy whispered to Emily.

Ben punched Sammy in the arm. “Uhhhhh, fuck you! I am of average height!” 

“Honey, if you were all tall as Sammy or I, we would _definitely_ not all fit on here. You’re small! It’s adorable!” Emily laughed softly and grinned.

Ben made an incoherent grumbling noise, but leaned into Sammy, wrapping his arm around his friend. “I love you, bud.”

Emily nodded. “Me too, Sammy.”  
Sammy smiled at his two friends, eyes softening. “I love you guys too. But for now,” He stood up heading back towards the console, “I’ve got to get us back to New York with a broken monitor. Gonna take a few hours. Why don’t you guys get some sleep?”

“That sounds nice,” Emily agreed, standing up and reaching out her hand, “C’mon, Benny.”

Ben nodded, hopping to his feet and holding Emily’s hand. “Night, Sammy!”  
  
“Goodnight, Sammy.”  
  
“Night, guys.”  
  
The couple nodded at each other and then disappeared down the hall, leaving Sammy all by his lonesome.

He let out a grunt and got to his feet, making his way back to the console with a heavy sigh. He traced one of the cracks in the monitor with a finger. “I’m sorry,” He murmured, pulling out his sonic driver from his pocket. Sammy starts using it to unscrew the edges of the monitor screen. The screen easily pops off and Sammy grabs it, but then turns around and he hears footsteps.

“Wow. Sammy doing manual labor? I’m practically in shock.” Lily snarked.

“Shut up,” Sammy responded through gritted teeth, holding his sonic screwdriver in his mouth as he takes the broken panel and heads down to the level underneath the console to collect spare parts.

Lily followed him and sat down on the bottom step.

“Get tired of wandering the hallways?” Sammy asked, digging through a box.

“No, I went to my room.”

Sammy looked up at her. “You still have a room here?”

“Yeah, asshole, I do. You really wanted to erase me from your life, huh?”

“No, no I just- I- it’s been years, Lil, I thought…” 

Lily laughed. “The TARDIS forgot me? Hah! I think she’ll love me more than she ever loves you.”

“Fair. She’s probably pretty upset with me right now,” Sammy said, turning back to the box. 

Lily made a noise of agreement. “Just _had_ to break something, huh? Drama queen.”

“I think she misses you guys,” Sammy whispered, barely loud enough for Lily to hear.

“I missed her too.”

The room went silent, only the hum of the TARDIS’ various mechanics filling the empty air. 

“I think she misses him the most.” Sammy finally broke the silence, his voice low.

Lily nodded. “Yeah, Jack always took such good care of her. What a nerd,” she gently chuckled.

Sammy stopped digging through the box, then quickly grabbed a new screen and carefully stood, stepping over Lily on the staircase back up to the console.

Lily grumbled and followed Sammy back up, standing against one of the railings at the edge of the platform. “I know you loved him,” she said bluntly. 

Sammy froze, after almost dropping the glass screen in his hands. He didn’t turn to meet Lily’s eyes.

“You weren’t really subtle, dunno if you were trying to be,” she continued, “You followed him down his insane plan to end the war. At least I was smart enough to realize how crazy it all really was.”

“Well, he was right wasn’t he? It ended the war.”

“It killed him. It killed _everyone_ .” Lily snapped back, then let out a dark laugh, “Well, everyone except you and me. We must be _so_ lucky.”

Sammy set the screen down on the console, hard. “Stop.”

“Well, Sammy, riddle me this! If you two were working together till the very end, why isn’t Jack right here next to you! Why didn’t he survive? Why was it us?” Lily lashed out, her hands tightening into fists as she began to tear up.

Sammy banged his fists on the edge of the console. “He always had to be the _goddamn hero_ , Lily, you always knew that!”

“And you’re The Protector! So why couldn’t you be the hero for once?”

“That’s a lot of talk coming from The Strength who was too much of a coward to follow through with a plan. We weren’t supposed to survive.”

“Well, here you are! The one and only Protector in flesh and bone!”

“He made me promise that I would try to get out, even if he wasn’t back in time!”

Lily laughed grimly, throwing her head back before spitting back at him. “ _Oh, bullshit-_ ”

Sammy bolted upright and turned around, pointing a finger at Lily. “And guess what, Lily? He was trying to save _you_ . He thought you were still on the surface, so he ran off to find _you_.”

Lily went quiet. “I wasn’t anywhere near Gallifrey that day,” She said quietly.

“Yeah, well, clearly he didn’t know that, or he’d be here right now, wouldn’t he?”

Everything went silent again. Sammy turned around and picked up the screen, putting it back in place with his sonic screwdriver. After he was done, he slid the device into pocket, still not turning around. “Yeah, I loved him. But in the end, I couldn’t save him, okay, Lily?”

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but instead nothing came out. She went silent for a few moments, shoving her hands into her pockets. “He loved you too, I could tell,” she finally murmured.

“I know.”

Lily looked up at him, frowning. “You do?”

“A few days before the… when we were going to…. end it, he- he told me. We only had days, we-”

“Seems like enough time to get a few _good fucks_ in to me.”

“ _Jesus, Lily._ ”

“What?” Lily asked, putting her hands up in a show of innocence.

“Why do you have to be like that?”

“Like what? Phenomenal?” She grinned half-heartedly. “Plus, come on. Am I wrong?”

Sammy didn’t answer, but just let out a sigh.

“Your silence speaks volumes.” Lily said, smirking.

Sammy smiled as he fiddled with buttons on the console. “Why don’t you get some sleep, Lil? I’m gonna try and touch us down in New York again.”

She snorted. “Okay, have fun with that,” Lily said, reaching out and squeezing his shoulder before heading back down the stairs to the hallway. “Night, asshole!”

“Good night, Lily!” He shouted back, smiling to himself. He rubbed a smudge out of the new screen with his sleeve as the TARDIS hummed all around him. “Yeah,” He whispered, looking up at the ceiling, “I missed her too.”

**Author's Note:**

> visit us on twt  
> @THINKFVST  
> @catalystpaladin


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